Second comeback falls short

The Rockets were down and nearly out at the stretch.

Trailing 12-5, the “new” Rockets of old came through to even the score, thanks in part to a base-clearing triple in the eighth from newcomer Luke Barnes.

After falling behind by two in the top of the ninth inning, Portland had the heart of its order up with the potential tying run on first base.

They weren’t able to rally yet again.

The Portland Rockets had a second attempt at a comeback fall short in the bottom of the ninth inning in a 14-12 loss to the Summit City Sluggers in the first game of Red Carrington League tournament pool play at Portland Memorial Park’s Runkle-Miller Field.

“We just don’t seem to get off to a good start,” said Portland manager Randy Miller, whose team has now lost four straight and nine of its last 11 games. “Our pitching puts us in a hole and we have to battle back. And battle back we did.

“Sometimes it’s hard to get over that last hurdle. We made an attempt, got the first two guys on in the ninth inning.”

Summit City (9-10-1) jumped ahead in the ninth as Dominic Deisler reached on an infield error. Eli McDonald followed with a single, and Jay County High School graduate Max Moser singled to put the Sluggers ahead 13-12. McDonald, who reached third on a wild pitch and Moser’s single, scored on a double steal for a two-run Summit City advantage.

Forced to rally yet again, Portland began the home half of the ninth with a single from Will Ricter, one of three Rockets who was making his debut. Kasey Henderson followed with a single, and Ricter swiped third to give Portland runners at the corners with the meat of the Rocket lineup coming to bat with none out.

Summit City reliever Ryan Hackworth struck out Zach Tanner, the Rockets’ No. 2 hitter, on four pitches. Patrick Mills then fanned on three straight Hackworth offerings. Hackworth then got out of the jam — and earned the save — by inducing a game-ending grounder.

“It was just power on power with those two,” said Lea Selvey, Summit City assistant who was filing in for head coach Todd Farr. “He just elevated each pitch to keep it out of the zone. They both know they hit it out (of the park) and it’s over and they are both capable of doing that.

“You just live and die with what you’ve got. Hat’s off to (Hackworth).”

Portland (9-11) fell behind 2-0 in the game’s first inning, but responded with four runs in the home half of the frame, highlighted by a two-run Justin Greene double — he scored on the play, advancing to third on a throw to the plate and reaching home on an error in an attempt to cut Greene down at third.

But Summit City responded with four in the second inning to lead 6-4. Portland pulled within one, 6-5, in the third ahead of three runs by the Sluggers in each of the sixth and seventh innings.

Portland, however, chipped away at the deficit in the seventh and eighth frames. Its three runs in the seventh came on a Mitch Waters triple, a wild pitch and a Barnes double to make it 12-8.

The next frame, Caleb Mealy drew a two-out, bases-loaded walk to make it 12-9, and Barnes fired a triple over the center fielder’s head to clear the bases for his three-bagger.

But when the Rockets needed to rally again, they were bitten by the strikeout bug, which struck a dozen times prior to the ninth.

“They have some power arms, man,” Miller said. “They just kept coming at us all day.

“We had a lot of strikeouts. Had men to third numerous times and didn’t score.”

Portland continues pool play at 8 p.m. Friday against the Fort Wayne Blues at Carrington Field in Fort Wayne. The Blues and Sluggers meet Thursday.

The tournament has three, three-team pools. The top two teams in each pool advance to crossover play on Saturday to determine the top three seeds which will advance to Sunday’s championship round. Saturday and Sunday’s games will be at Carrington Field.